Putting the Pastor out to Pasture
Gary Waddell • iamnotashamed.com • 2022-09-16
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
(Rom 10:14)
Some thoughts: Did the "Retiring Pastor" not meet the Qualifications:
Before you put your Godly Pastor out to Pasture,
see if you can answer these questions.
Did he love the Lord with all his heart • Did he serve Him every day?
Did he love God’s word, continually • Did he take the time to pray?
Did he preach God’s word right from His book • Although it might convict?
Did he confess he was not perfect, • and that he came, when God had picked?
Did he come back Sunday evenings • although many churches stopped,
The evening service where few would come • too much trouble, so they dropped?
Did he show up on Wednesday evening • To pray with all who came?
Did he take the time to ask about • a youngster’s football game?
Did he visit folks, when they were sick • Or call them on the phone?
Did he care for those who could not come? • Did he visit at their homes?
Was he prepared with all his sermons? • Did they honor the Lord our God?
Did he prepare, in prayer and solitude, • And not google, sermons dot com?
Did he preach the member’s funerals, • And go when ‘ere they called?
Did he love to perform a marriage, • for men and women who love God?
Did he love each and everyone of us, • and find good things, in each to tell?
Did he have a love, for those ‘outside’ • who are lost and going to hell?
Did he have faults? Of course he did. • He confessed them to God on high.
Did we judge him on an issue? • With a beam lodged in our eye?
Did he shame our God, in any way • o’er the decades he had preached?
Or did we tire, of God’s holy word, • and no longer qualifications, did he meet?
Was the Pastor Brutish?
“For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered” (Jer 10:21).
Or were Elders / Deacons Brutish?
“Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued **, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well” (1 Tim 3:8-12).
Last Question to ask ourselves before making decisions in the church:
How does this glorify God ? (1 Cor 6:20)
Let us be careful that we all have the beam removed from our own eyes (Matt 7:3-4).
Thanks for "Taking 5" - Gary Waddell - Victory Ministries Middle Tennessee
iamnotashamed.com - God bless and bless GOD
** Vines: Double-Tongued: primarily means "saying the same thing twice, or given to repetition" (dis, "twice," logos, "a word, or speech"); hence, "saying a thing to one person and giving a different view of it to another, double-tongued,"
